Will 2013 be the year that changes the game?

Undoubtedly, 2012 was a year filled with great disability news. From the Gillard Government's commitment to a National Disability Insurance Scheme to the London 2012 Paralympic Games, there was much reason to celebrate as 2012 drew to a close. Already a month in, 2013 is shaping up to be a mean competitor in the race for a winning year.

From 1 July this year, the first stages of the NDIS will take effect for more than 20,000 people across South Australia, Tasmania, the ACT, the Hunter region of NSW and the Barwon area in Victoria. We've tried to imagine what the NDIS will look like. We've contributed our own ideas to the process and we've dreamed of the ways in which it will affect our lives. This year, the dream starts to become a reality.

This year also marks the 20th birthday of the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (Cth). The Act came into operation on 1 March 1993 and, while not the first piece of legislation to prohibit disability discrimination, it was the first federal legislation to ensure that definitions of disability were consistent across Australia. When the DDA was introduced in 1993, then Deputy Prime Minister Brian Howe said that the vision of the DDA was;

"... a fairer Australia, where people with disabilities can participate in the life of the community in which they live, to the degree that they wish; where people with disabilities can gain and hold meaningful employment that provides wages and career opportunity that reflect performance; where control by people with disabilities over their own bodies, lives and future is assumed and ensured..." (Brian Howe quoted by Graeme Innes, Groundhog Day or New Horizon?, Speech delivered at the 2012 National Deafness Sector Summit, Melbourne, April 29, 2012). http://www.deafnessforum.org.au/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=224&Itemid=299

Since 1993, a number of significant Disability Discrimination cases have been fought and won. For example, Kevin Cocks v State of Queensland in 1994 found that the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre, which was constructed with a huge staircase leading to the front entrance and required wheelchair users to enter via a back entrance lift 43 metres away, was in breach of the act.

Just this week, the Federal Magistrates court has ordered Railcorp, the provider of rail transport in New South Wales, to pay compensation to Graeme Innes, Australia's Disability Discrimination Commissioner, for failing to provide regular, consistent and audible announcements on trains.

Mr Innes says that he will donate the compensation money to organisations which support people who are vision impaired, but that he "wanted to ensure that people who were blind or have low vision were treated in the same way as everyone else."

People with disabilities who experience discrimination or unfair treatment in 2013 also have another handy tool up their sleeves; social media. I've successfully used Twitter to notify businesses of poor access or attitudes, and it works brilliantly. Even if they're not aware of the nuts and bolts of the DDA, most people know of its existence. That knowledge combined with a gentle nudge in 140 characters has proven to be more powerful than I ever anticipated.

This year will also see the senate inquiry into the involuntary or coerced sterilisation of people with disabilities in Australia. Despite the fact that Australian women have access to many different forms of contraception, the incidence of involuntary sterilisation among women with disabilities is frighteningly high, and often occurs at the insistence of parents or the urging of doctors. Submissions to the inquiry close 22 February, and findings will be handed down on 24 April.

On the threshold of the most important change to disability care and support Australia has seen for generations, in an era where we're more connected than we ever have been, I see great potential in the year ahead. Let's make sure 2013 is a year to remember.

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